Mount Coolon Hotel

When we got up and prepared to leave, we went to thank Liz for her hospitality and tell he how good the food had been. Although we were keen to leave, we accepted a tour of the hotel and to be told about its history - see photo.

One bedroom had been the flying doctor’s consulting room when he visited each week. He would bring a nurse and perform minor surgery if required. Another bedroom had been the room where the gold was bought from the prospectors and stored in their vault. Outside there were various bits of machinery form days gone by, plus the chimney built with local, hand-made bricks.

The business has been up for sale for a long time. They have rooms in the hotel and rooms outside “Dongas” that are two rooms built into a portacabin. There were. Number of these. The hotel has been full for many weeks, more than 20 dinners, breakfasts and packed lunches. There are more workman coming to the area as they look to tarmac the road - hooray 😀. We were told that the dust from the road was a major factor in fatalities.

We set off with 60km of dirt track ahead of us. Our speed varied from 25kmph to 50kmph. Sometimes it felt like we were just running across a continual cattle grid. Sometimes, when we did come across a cattle grid, that felt oh so smooth. There were the occasional tantalising stretches of a few hundred metres of tarmac before reverting back to the corrugated clay. It was horrible. I accept that most vehicles going down the road don’t have cutlery, glasses and plates jumping around in the back, making a real din. But we did. Did I mention it was awful?

Eventually we came to the end of the gravel road and then turned onto Highway 7 with our fingers crossed that we would not have to take Bertha down another corrugated road again.Read more